Fireflies
by Rasiaa
Summary: Teddy is an exceptional liar; she should've known there was some kind of devious motive.


_Firstly, for the Inktober 2019 challenge - guess where?_

_Next, the song is Human by Gabrielle Aplin_

_And lastly, the thing Teddy reads about online is in the Phoenix Art Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. It's gorgeous, and is "You Who Are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies" by Yayoi Kusama. It's one of the favorites in the museum; I've seen it a half a dozen times and it never fails to amaze. It's exactly as I've described it here._

_There is also a tribute to the amazing Casting Moonshadows by Moonsign. I just thought of the fic while writing and it seemed particularly amusing, and totally something that Teddy would do, though it was a stolen hedgehog._

* * *

_You don't need to pretend that perfection is your friend - cause we're all broken; we all end up alone._

...

Vic has been hearing that song for years, now.

She idly twirls her hair around her fingers, twisting and pulling until a single strand comes free and she hisses in pain. Teddy turns around to look at her quizzically, but only for a moment before McGonagall comes down the aisle to check their progress on their parakeets turned champagne glasses.

Vic's poor parakeet has been sitting pretty on a little dais she made from her textbooks, a glass for the past fifteen minutes. It's silent and unresponsive when she pokes it, so Vic has taken to staring out the window instead.

"Ms. Weasley, could you at least pretend to continue practicing?"

She turns to her professor, uninterested. "I've already perfected the spell; why would I continue?"

"One correct attempt does not mean perfection, Ms. Weasley," McGonagall said sternly, casting her eyes on the glass. "I'm sure Professor Wellsburg has told you that before."

Wellsburg is her normal Transfiguration professor, out sick for the afternoon. He has not actually told her that before. One correct attempt has always been good enough. Vic can't fathom why McGonagall is pushing the issue, or why there's an issue to be pushed in the first place.

"He has," Teddy jumps in, swinging around in his seat. "But Vic's just tired today. We were up late studying for our Charms exams."

This is a bold faced lie, but Teddy has always been an exceptional liar. Considering the rest of the family and their disastrous way with words, Vic is continually amused by his ability to get everyone else in trouble while remaining a saint.

McGonagall is not immune to this, apparently, because she just says, "Well, do try to rest outside of class in the future, Ms. Weasley, Mr. Lupin."

"Will do, Professor," Vic says, sighing inwardly. She wasn't tired five minutes ago but the feeling settles on her now like a deep cloud.

The Headmistress walks away, and Teddy winks at her. Vic can muster just enough energy to smile in return. He resumes his spell work on his squawking bird and she resumes her daydreams about the sky.

...

_Oh, love your flaws and live for your mistakes._

...

"Hey."

Blearily, she looks up at her friend, who grins impishly at her. "What?" she asks.

Teddy's grin widens. "Let me show you something."

Vic sighs, but decides to indulge him because Merlin knows he can be as annoying as James or Louis when he puts his mind to it.

It's dark. It's a new moon with clouds, so she can barely see her hand in front of her face, never mind finding Teddy as he dodges through shadows. But she recognizes the path and follows without difficulty.

The Room of Requirement is a regular hideout for the children of former DA members. Vic watches Teddy pace for a moment, then the doors as they fade into existence.

She has no idea what he's planned.

Usually when they hang out here it's a softer version of the Gryffindor common room, with less red and gold scattered everywhere, and more muted tones of what's left. But Teddy has remade some kind of mirror room, and she almost screams when she runs right into a string and the whole place lights up.

Every color of the rainbow glitters in front of her. They seem to go on forever, since each wall is covered in mirrors, as is the floor and ceiling. She finds Teddy, who stands very still in front of her.

"I read about this online," he says. "Honestly - it's amazing what Muggles think of, isn't it?"

"Yes," she agrees. "Teddy -"

"My grandmother just died," he interrupts, as if she didn't know that. She'd held him through the funeral a month ago. Vic wonders what that has to do with anything, but he continues, "She left me everything, since she had no other heir, though I'd like to think it all would've been mine anyway." He looks thoughtful for a moment but then turns his focus back to her. "But, part of what she had belonged to my mum. I - Harry would kill me if he found out you have this. Still, I think it suits you, and I've always -"

He falls silent. Vic leans forward slightly with a smile. "Yes?"

"I..." Still, he seems lost for words. Eventually he just pulls something from his pocket, and takes her hand. He hands her something made of cold metal. She opens her hand and unravels it.

It's a gold chain, and on the end is a glittering ring.

Her breath catches.

"It's not - not a proposal, or anything," Teddy says, rushed, as if she didn't know that, too. For Merlin's sake, Teddy only just turned seventeen, and her sixteenth is in a week. "But, maybe - a different kind of promise. Merlin knows I've been with just about everyone in my year, and everyone in yours, but no one has ever meant as much to me as you always have, and no one has ever loved me like you do."

She says nothing, holding the ring up to inspect it. It's simple, with five diamonds that reflect the lights around them as they morph from one color to the next. The band is dusted gold.

_For my lovely Dora_, it says on the inside. For a moment she's confused, but then she remembers that Tonks' first name was Nymphadora. No one calls her that when she's brought up in conversation, but it makes sense that her husband called her something special.

"I do love you," she admits. "I always have, and I always will, even if in some unthinkable future I'm not in love with you anymore."

"I'd probably die," he says lightly, and the joke makes her smile and roll her eyes.

_So walk away, from your pride; it's a demon in disguise, and it won't help you, to calm the swelling tide._

She's not typically strong. She cries easily and frequently has bursts of frustration from other people's actions and the state of the planet. And even though everyone says she's beautiful, she wonders constantly if they'd say that without any knowledge of her Veela bloodline. After all, a lot of people forget that Dom is her sister since she likes to pretend she's not a part of the family, and she gets all the same compliments, with the same awe and respect. Sometimes more, since she's classically beautiful and Vic just looks like every other Veela. She's shallow, too, evidently.

She's been in love with Teddy for as long as she can remember, and until last year, it seemed like heartbreak was her only option as she watched him sleep his way through the school, boys and girls alike. She was convinced she'd die an old maid.

But now he says he'd die without her. And he's given her his mother's wedding ring.

All of her dreams have come true in a glittering room that has never existed before and never will again, and if in some unthinkable world she falls in love with someone else, she knows it will never feel like this. It never could because this is Teddy Lupin and she's been his best friend for sixteen years.

She suddenly can't wait for his real proposal.

She looks up, suddenly needing to say something, anything, but then she catches sight of the glitter in his eyes and the all too familiar slyness to his smile and her guard goes up. She clutches the ring a litter tighter and says, "What...?"

Teddy reaches into his cloak and pulls out a parakeet.

She stares at it. It blinks in the sudden light and chirps.

"What the fuck," she says flatly. He snorts.

"It's from class," he says, again, an obvious statement.

"Yes, I see that, but why?"

"I didn't want to doom it to a life as a champagne glass and it looked sad and I know you'll take care of it."

She looks up at him, incredulous. "_Me?_"

"Well, yeah. I kill everything," he says, and she remembers now that his abysmal relationship with plants is the reason why no one comes anywhere near him for herbology, or for magical creatures out of fear that the little animals will explode like the mandrakes from his second year. So she just sighs.

"I should've known you'd have some kind of devious motive," she says, and he laughs.

He leans down and kisses her. When they part he says, "You really should've." He holds out his hand, pinky raised. "Promise we'll be - well, something like parakeet parents or whatever?"

Eloquent until he's talking to her, of course. Amused, she wraps her pinky around his and for a moment they're little kids again. "Promise," she says.


End file.
